Sebastian Bieniek (1975) - Doublefaced No. 6 (8/9)

Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975 in Poland) is famous for works in the context of duality and ambivalence, which have gone viral several times since 2013 and have been published by the largest magazines around the world. According to Spanish VOGUE Magazine, even Madonna asked him in 2016 to create her new album cover, but the eccentric artist, as so often, refused and preferred to stay by himself.

______

For sale:

Original photography (high-quality Fine Art Print) from the Doublefaced series by Sebastian Bieniek.

There are only 9 individually numbered and signed originals of this work (Doublefaced No. 6). Here is 8/9.

7 of the originals are worldwide in important collections. Among others in the USA, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Spain, Bahrain, the United Kingdom, Japan and Hong Kong.

This work is being sold by the artist directly (as the second-to-last remaining piece).

The auction winner will receive a certificate of authenticity issued in the artist’s name.

______

Details about the artwork:

- Title: Doublefaced No. 6 (8/9)
- Year: 2013
- Size: 58 x 42 cm. (There is a 5 cm white border around the photo. The measurements include the white border)
- Medium: Photograph (not mounted and not framed)
- Paper: Baryta Canson
- Method: C-Print
- Signatures: Yes, multiple. A quick signature is at the top left of the front. A stamp by the artist is at the bottom right. At the bottom left the title and signature. On the back it is titled and signed again.

______

Condition:

Bottom left (see photo No. 6) there is a small red spot on the white border. Barely noticeable if you don’t know it. Therefore not relevant and the condition is good. Please view photo No. 6 so you know what you are getting. There the spot is visible at the top left. It is no more than 1 mm wide.

On the back there is also a spot covered with tape. This is the case with all photos that, like this one, were exhibited in PUCE (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador) Quito/Ecuador in 2016, where Sebastian Bieniek had a teaching assignment. At that time the signature was covered with tape, and the photo was de-originalized so that after the exhibition it could be re-originalized (re-signed and re-labeled). The reason was that the artist was not sure if the works would safely return from South America and he did not want to risk losing the “originals.” They did return safely.

______

Shipping:

The photograph will be shipped rolled.

_______

About the Doublefaced Series:

The Doublefaced photo series by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek is indisputably one of the most important and influential photo series of the Internet age. It is the perfect example of contemporary art that not only understands the modern zeitgeist but reflects it in its purest form. In an era defined by digital self-presentation, constant reinvention of the ego, and the fragmentation of one’s identity on social media, Bieniek’s works struck a nerve of society. His works captured the deep human need to be simultaneously masked and visible amid digital noise, making the duality of our modern existence visually tangible.

The minimalist yet deeply disturbing concept — two faces drawn with eyeliner and lipstick on the models’ cheeks — went viral in the 2010s and left a lasting imprint on global pop and fashion worlds. The strength of this artistic impulse in capturing the pulse of the time is evident in its enormous resonance with world-renowned icons. The Queen of Pop, Madonna, was so fascinated by the hypnotic imagery that she chose a photograph from the series for the cover of her album Madame X. The concept also left a deep mark in music and pop culture: in Pharrell Williams’ official music video for Marilyn Monroe, the iconic idea of the two-faced illusion was copied and presented to a million-strong audience.

Perhaps most spectacularly bridging avant-garde body art and the high-fashion world, the series found a platform on the runways of Paris. The fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus recognized the zeitgeist potential and brought the look into Paris Fashion Week in direct collaboration with Sebastian Bieniek. Bieniek-inspired designs exploded in the fashion world, helping Jacquemus win the prestigious 150,000 euro LVMH Special Jury Prize. Through this symbiosis of Internet phenomenon, pop culture, and haute couture, the Doublefaced series demonstrated impressively how traditional art can push beyond the boundaries of the analog and become a universal visual language for an entire generation.

_____

About the artist:

The German conceptual artist, painter and photographer Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975) is regarded as one of the most radical boundary-pushers in contemporary art. His entire body of work has been a perpetual, provocative dance on the razor-thin line between reality and illusion.

Born in Upper Silesia, Bieniek moved to Germany in 1989 as a late resettler and began his artistic path at the Braunschweig University of Art. There he studied Free Art under starkly contrasting influences: the world-renowned performance pioneer Marina Abramović and the Swiss conceptual artist John M. Armleder. Later he transferred to the Berlin University of the Arts, where he completed his studies as a Meisterschüler while also pursuing studies in directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. His career began in the late 1990s at the legendary Berlin art space Tacheles, from which he quickly rose to become a fixed figure. In 2013 he achieved his international breakthrough with the viral Doublefaced photo series, after which renowned magazines named him one of the most influential artists in Berlin.

Early in his career, Bieniek stood out with actions that deeply unsettled audiences and the traditional art world. Inspired by the bodily boundary experiences of his mentor Abramović, he used his own body as material and in an early work daily cut a new wound on his arm for days to document the transience physically. Alongside these painful processes, he staged disturbing social experiments in public spaces, laying down long stretches of tape without permission to block subway entrances or public squares in Berlin. This demonstrated how blindly people obey visual and state authority. With his 2011 book Realfake, he broadened these experiments to the digital realm: by creating dozens of fake profiles, he manipulated algorithms, media, and public perception long before the phenomenon of “Alternative Facts” reached world politics.

The absolute, radical culmination of this interdisciplinary work was the staging of his own death as a final art performance. Bieniek, who lifelong dissected the mechanisms of media effectiveness, digital identity, and deception, extended this principle to the ultimate boundary of human existence. He forged and orchestrated news about his own death and accompanied it with conceptual video messages like his Apology for Being Dead, leaving the art world and the public in a state of shock. With this act he surpassed all previous artists in interdisciplinary scope. He no longer used only canvas, camera, or the living body, but elevated total disappearance, the play with the hereafter, and the ensuing media hysteria to the actual artwork. Bieniek thereby proved once again that in the age of digital networks, even the boundary between life and death is manipulable, shapeable, and ultimately part of a hyperreal staging.